But he added: “While focus and attention on Mali is critical ,it should not be at the cost of the rest of the region.”

On the sidelines of the meeting Prodi said time is running out to prevent a repeat of the Islamist upsurge in Mali in other countries.

“So many tragedies are happening in the world. I think that we must be very, very quick, otherwise the Sahel will be in a box with so many other problems that it will be more and more difficult to intervene,” he told reporters.

Prodi said that countries he had visited — from China to the United States and Europe — “are frightened by the idea of terrorism. They are also aware that this is the poorest part of the world.”

The envoy said international efforts must be made to bolster transparent and honest governance, security, humanitarian assistance and development.

He wants to set up a Sahel Action Fund to concentrate on Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Chad. But instead of just giving money, he wants rich nations to choose a project and commit to finish it. Prodi points to China’s example in building the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Prodi wrote a recent report for UN leader Ban Ki-moon which warned that turmoil in the vast region — running from Mauritania on Africa’s west coast to Eritrea in the east — will only worsen unless there is a joint effort to boost security and lift the fast-growing population out of poverty.

The Sahel includes conflicts in Mali and Sudan’s Darfur and some of the world’s poorest countries. There are regular climate crises and the population is set to “balloon” from 150 million to 250 million in 25 years, said the report.

“Nowhere is the development-security nexus more evident than in the Sahel,” Ban said in the study, which highlighted “weak governance, “widespread corruption” and “chronic political instability.”